Indiana State Police body-camera footage shows that the suspect who was later arrested in the slayings of four University of Idaho students had been pulled over twice on his way back to Pennsylvania from Washington state on Dec. 15.
The footage reveals a police officer approaching a white Hyundai Elantra occupied by two males. The state police have identified them as Bryan Kohlberger, the 28-year-old accused in the Nov. 13 killings, and Kohlberger’s father.
Though most of the conversation is indiscernible due to background noise, the officer can be heard giving the driver and passenger a warning for following another car too closely. According to WXIN-TV in Indianapolis, Kohlberger had also been pulled over on Interstate 70 less than 10 minutes earlier for speeding, but he didn’t receive a ticket for either traffic stop in Hancock County, east of Indianapolis.
According to WLS-TV in Chicago, Kohlberger and his father were driving home to Pennsylvania for the holidays. They arrived on Dec. 17, and the white Hyundai was found at his parents’ house.
The car in the body-camera footage matches investigators’ description of a car that was seen near the victims’ house on the day the stabbing deaths occurred, according to ABC News. But at the time of the traffic stops, no information about the Idaho slayings suspect was available, including the license plate of the white Hyundai Elantra that had been seen near the crime scene, WXIN-TV reported.
Kohlberger was arrested in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. After his court appearance on Dec. 31, he agreed to waive an extradition hearing so he could face charges in Idaho.
This will likely be the last major update the public hears from officials involved in the case, at least for a while. On Tuesday, police in Moscow, Idaho, said a court order is silencing communication from investigators, law enforcement and lawyers.
In a statement released Sunday, Kohlberger’s family said they have cooperated with law enforcement “in an attempt to seek the truth and promote his presumption of innocence.”
Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, both 20, were found stabbed to death in their rental house near the campus in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohlberger, 28, was a doctoral student at nearby Washington State University.
